The 2025 U.S. Protests: Or, How We Finally Noticed the House Is on Fire

7 min readJun 12, 2025

In the spring and summer of 2025, the United States — that grand experiment in democracy, or as some would call it, a long-running sitcom with laugh tracks and commercial breaks — witnessed a phenomenon: three to five million people across all fifty states decided, en masse, that they’d had enough of the usual bullshit. What started as a reaction to the latest round of ICE raids — where the government, in all its wisdom, decided the best way to solve immigration was to roll up to people’s homes in armored vehicles in Los Angeles, Austin, Dallas, and Seattle like it was the last day of a going-out-of-business sale — quickly turned into something bigger. It became a nationwide “Hands Off!” movement, because apparently, the concept of “don’t touch me” is now revolutionary.

Let’s be clear: this wasn’t about being a Democrat or a Republican, or even about being “Mexican” or “American.” No, this was about people waking up and realizing that when the government starts tearing families apart and militarizing the streets in one neighborhood, it’s only a matter of time before they come for yours. Suddenly, everyone from teachers to truck drivers, from retirees to restaurant workers, labor unions, civil rights organizations, grassroots activists, and even veterans — people who, in any other context, might not agree on the color of the sky — was out in the streets, united by a simple idea: maybe, just maybe, we deserve better than being treated like extras in a dystopian action movie.

The Hands Off protests drew between three and five million people across all fifty states — that’s a lot of people who decided, “You know what? I’d rather not spend my weekend getting tear-gassed, but here we are.” The movement’s strength was its sheer diversity: labor unions, civil rights groups, faith organizations, and veterans — people who all agreed that when the government starts acting like a bad landlord with a flamethrower, it’s time to push back.

Of course, the media had to get involved. Conservative outlets, ever the champions of nuance, decided the protesters were all “anarchists” or “paid agitators,” while the liberal press focused on Trump’s latest antics, as if the real story was the man in the spotlight, not the millions in the streets. Social media, that great amplifier of both truth and nonsense, was awash with viral videos of police violence and conspiracy theories about secret plots. The result? A national conversation so fragmented, you’d think we were all watching different channels on different planets.

But here’s the thing: the protests worked because people finally recognized that the real enemy wasn’t each other, but the system that keeps us divided. Teachers, nurses, and factory workers joined immigrants in saying, “Wait a minute — if they can do this to them, they can do it to us.” Images of children separated from parents and veterans getting arrested at rallies didn’t just spark sympathy; they sparked outrage. And outrage, as it turns out, is a hell of a motivator.

The movement drew inspiration from the civil rights era, Occupy Wall Street, and even global protests in places like Hong Kong and Chile. But unlike some past movements, this one had clear demands: stop the raids, demilitarize the police, protect voting rights. And, most importantly, stop treating people like disposable props in some political theater.

Of course, the powers that be weren’t about to let this slide. Federal agents and National Guard troops rolled out the tear gas and rubber bullets, because nothing says “land of the free” like a militarized police response to peaceful protest. In Los Angeles, over 2,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines were deployed to the city, with President Trump invoking federal authority to override the objections of California Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass. This marked the first time since 1965 that a president had mobilized a state’s National Guard without the governor’s consent.

Meanwhile, the media kept churning out stories about “outside agitators” and violence, because nothing sells like fear and division. But the protesters kept coming. Why? Because, as one participant put it, “They can arrest us, but they can’t arrest the idea that we deserve better.” And that’s the heart of it: the 2025 protests were a referendum on a system that’s rigged against ordinary people. Wage stagnation, corporate tax cuts, voter suppression, militarized policing — these aren’t just policy failures, they’re symptoms of a deeper disease. Sixty-eight percent of Americans believed the government no longer represents the people.

The scenes in Los Angeles, Austin, Dallas, and Seattle looked eerily familiar to anyone who’s watched protests around the world. In Los Angeles, LAPD buses filled up with detained protesters, their hands zip-tied behind their backs, as police cleared the streets near the Metropolitan Detention Center. In Austin, police used pepper spray balls and state police used tear gas when demonstrators tried to deface the federal building with spray paint, resulting in 12 arrests and several injured officers. In Philadelphia, 15 protesters were arrested and several injured after police moved in to break up a march blocking traffic outside the Federal Department of Corrections.

Journalists were not spared: in Los Angeles, Australian reporter Lauren Tomasi was struck by a rubber bullet while clearly identifiable as press, prompting international condemnation. The Trump administration’s hardline stance — committing to as many as 3,000 immigration arrests daily — only fueled the fire, pushing workers into hiding and inspiring solidarity marches from coast to coast.

But the Hands Off movement resisted the cycle of violence and division, emphasizing nonviolence, unity, and a stubborn refusal to be divided. Even celebrities weighed in: Grammy winner Doechii used her acceptance speech to denounce the administration’s actions, while actor Mark Ruffalo likened immigration officials to “packs of coyotes”.

So, where does this leave us? The protests didn’t solve all the problems, but they did something even more important: they reminded us that democracy isn’t a spectator sport. It’s not something you watch on TV or scroll past on your phone. It’s something you have to fight for, every damn day.

In the words of one protester in Detroit — a city that knows a thing or two about fighting back — “This isn’t about Democrats or Mexicans. It’s about remembering that ‘we the people’ means all of us.” And if that’s too radical an idea for some, well, maybe it’s time to ask who’s really running the show.

The 2025 protests were a wake-up call. The question is: will we hit snooze, or will we finally get out of bed and do something about it?

Because let’s face it: if we keep letting the same people make the same mistakes, we’ve got no one to blame but ourselves. And if there’s one thing history teaches us, it’s that when enough people say “enough,” even the most powerful systems start to crack.

So here’s to the protesters, the troublemakers, the ones who refuse to be silent. Because in a world full of noise, sometimes the loudest voice is the one that says, “Hands off.”

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to find a euphemism for “police state.” Maybe “freedom enhancement zone” will do the trick.

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